In our last post, we went into the basics of posing for your engagement and wedding photos. If you missed it, you can read that here!
Now we want to talk about how to really create the magic in your engagement and wedding photos! After all, don’t you want your photos to make you feel as excited as your loved one?
Even though most wedding portraits are posed, no one wants portraits that LOOK posed. The more candid and authentic your portraits look, the BETTER.
There are tons of ways to ensure that you end up with beautiful and natural looking photos that remind you of one of the happiest days of your life with your significant other. But just in case you have a photographer who doesn’t know how to guide you into these moments, here’s one of our MAIN tips:
We call it the X-FACTOR.
The X-Factor
When posing with your fiancé you always want the camera to feel like it has caught you in a moment while avoiding stiff and overly “posed to perfection” photos. Why?
They look cheesy and fake.
Instead of having our couples hold poses for minutes at a time, we will have them in motion to create a feeling of the capture of a moment in time instead of a structured pose that has been intentionally held for a minute or two and has become stale. This gives the portrait a more CANDID and AUTHENTIC touch. This is what you want for your portraits — for them to look unposed, like you do naturally with your significant other!
Fake and Cheesy
We did not take this photo, and while the couple is as cute as can be and the exposure and coloring look classic, I do not see this as the photo they choose for Save the Dates or to frame on their walls. . There is no “X-Factor” here and it looks like their photographer asked them to look at each other and smile. Do you do this with your fiance?
The truth is couples don’t actually do this which is why it makes the portraits “look” posed… but photographers make couples do this ALL THE TIME.
Now take a look at this next photo:
The X-Factor Applied
On the other hand, directing motion gives the portrait a sense of candid, as if we caught the couple in a real beautiful moment. In this photo of Kelsey and Sam above, the look they are giving each other does all of the talking. All we did was set up the moment, lead them into it, and voilà! This is an instant classic and nothing gives us more joy than picturing their kids one day looking back at this photo in Kelsey and Sam’s wedding album and seeing how much love their parents had for each other on their wedding day as they walked hand in hand just after tying the knot.
So now you may be wondering — what about posing your hands and eyes? What do you do with them to make sure an overall photo looks both beautiful, high-end, AND natural? Head to our third post in the Foundations of Posing series where we dive right into that!
Liking this series and want to work with us for your wedding? If you’re ready to learn more about Radian weddings, head here!
